^The light gray levers won't stand out at all. You'd have to look pretty closely and in good lighting to see the difference. 26 of the levers are on the underside of the ship as well, so you could put those ones there.

I actually used a combination of light grey and light bley plates/levers/bricks etc on my Falcon. In my (somewhat biased) eyes, it actually looks better, as it the slight variations in colour make it look like ship has some wear and tear and is not all pristine. As much as Han loved the Falcon, he certainly never kept it all shiny and clean. Just my thoughts..

I actually used a combination of light grey and light bley plates/levers/bricks etc on my Falcon. In my (somewhat biased) eyes, it actually looks better, as it the slight variations in colour make it look like ship has some wear and tear and is not all pristine. As much as Han loved the Falcon, he certainly never kept it all shiny and clean. Just my thoughts..

I was just going to make this same observation. Very slight color distinctions add detail and realism to something like this.

In fact, I've long thought Lego needs to add at least two different shades of "bley" to the lineup. There is a huge gap between the lighter and darker shade.

I would like to see one in between, plus one that is lighter than the lightest color now. So we would end up with super light bley, light bley, medium bley, and dark bley.

Having those 4 colors (and not 2) to play with would instantly add greater detail/realism to a lot of MOCs.

Also, given the high cost of the levers, I personally would not hesitate to go with the black levers. I think that would fit in to the overall look of the MF rather well.

Whereas simply deleting the huge, distinctive, and iconic radar dish (to save money) would not be an acceptable approach for me.

If you can't get all the correct pieces, you need to pick and choose your substitutions/deletions carefully.

Changing interior frame colors would not bother me in the slightest. In fact, delting the yellow for bley or whatever would like be an improvement, if it is possible to see the yellow from some weird angle.

I know that the red interior bits on my SSD set annoy me! You can see them from the right angles and as to why Lego used those I have no idea. It does help a bit in the build to have the color distinction, but that benefit does not outweigh the disadvantage of being able to see bright red on an otherwise grey ship.

I know that the red interior bits on my SSD set annoy me! You can see them from the right angles and as to why Lego used those I have no idea. It does help a bit in the build to have the color distinction, but that benefit does not outweigh the disadvantage of being able to see bright red on an otherwise grey ship.

I agree that more shades of grey would certainly be nice. I've been designing some rudimentary Castle-themed MOC stuff, and the lack of different greys is a bit bothersome.

As for the red in the SSD... I haven't built one yet - I hope to one day buy and build it - but looking at the instruction manual online, it seemed that the red was indeed for making it easier to place things. After all you have to build quite large parts in one step, if it was all gray all the time, many would have problems differentiating what goes where and how.

I just went there for the first time and now realize what a wonderful and powerful tool this is.

Without signing up, it allows you to create a "database" of up to 6 sets you currently own. It then asks you which Lego kit you would like to try and build from the pieces you already have. It compares parts inventories and tells you how many pieces you have, which pieces you need, and in which quantities.

It even offers suggestions for other comparable Lego kits based on a high parts match rate.

I entered the following six sets which I own and seemed like decent donor candidates: Super Star Destroyer, (newest) Millennium Falcon, UCS Darth Vader's TIE, (newest) X-wing fighter, Fire Brigade, and Town Hall.

I am obviously trying to build 10179 UCS MF.

Asking for a perfect color match of pieces (you can also choose "close" or you can ignore color matching entirely), it turns out those 6 sets give me 49.1% of the pieces needed for building 10179, which is not bad.

Other notable close matches: 10188 (Death Star) 45.5%, UCS Y-wing 44%, Death Star II 43.8%, and others, all in the 40-50% range.

So I, or anyone with these 6 donor sets, would not need to buy 100% of the parts needed to make 10179. I would need to buy about half. If we are willing to replace the gray "ratline" pieces with black, skip the bley levers, and go with a normal radar dish without the added detail, does this mean the cost for parting out half the ship would be something like $400 US or less?

That is kind of a tantalizing idea: order the missing pieces via bricklink for $400 or less, and have my own 10179 minus the instruction manual and with the stated parts substitutions.

However--there is a huge drawback here. This would result in cannibalizing six sets with a total cost of something over $1,100, plus the cost of buying the missing MF parts. This would result in the following:

I would have the UCS M.F, though with the stated substitutions. I would be out approximately $1,500, and I would also be out the 6 donor kits. In their place would be a random assortment of leftover pieces which were not needed in the UCS MF build.

You add it all up and it doesn't make any sense....unless you are willing to do this as a temporary thing. Spend the $400 to get the missing pieces, break up the 6 donor sets, and enjoy bulding the MF. Display it and have fun with it....and then re-build the 6 donor sets at a later date. The key is you would not be able to display all 7 sets at the same time.

And if what you are really after is 10179, buying those 6 donor sets (plus $400 in missing pieces) for $1,500 or so is not really the most efficient way to do it.

$1,500 will probably still get you at least a used but complete 10179.

Sorry for the long post, but I thought it was an interesting analysis. Rebrickable is a wonderful resource I will be using more often.

^That was actually a very interesting read @ringleheim. My take on this is:

Do not cannibalize owned sets that are complete, especially if their aftermarket value is 2xRRP or more. Better if they were sold for market price and used to purchase their allocated parts straightforward through Bricklink. In most cases, you would be left with surplus money and not parts. Best way to get loose new parts for BL projects would be concentration on non-license/non-minifig sets that are on discount, i.e. Creator and un-popular themes/sets. You'll still have left over parts of course, but price per piece should be very low. Best way to handle this aspect is to line up multiple projects at once. You'll be able to consume over 70% of parts if the right sets are chosen. Otherwise, it might cheaper overall by simply Bricklinking the entire project from scratch than rebricking complete sets. For example, last month I BL'd the entire UCS MF for $750 with only 2 substitutions (mast rigging and 39 levers), rest were accurate (and more importantly new) parts. I was doing this along with AT-AT (8129), Vader's TIE (8088), Eiffel Tower (10181), Tumbler (7888) which all have similar parts and color. This cut down on the total number of orders and sellers, thus reducing overall shipping costs (which is not to be underestimated).

Found access to a large number of the LBG levers at about $2.50 each after delivery. I'll be ordering within this week to complete my missing 39 levers but was thinking about polling the rest of Brickset to see if anyone else is interested in joining in on the buy? If so, PM or comment here.

Agree with the above... It sounds expensive compared to what others have posted here...

For $1,200 (plus shipping I assume), I'd just buy a used factory set...

Others have posted that it can be done for around $800. Still sounds expensive all things considered... :) Then again, my wife thinks anything over $50 for a Lego set sounds expensive, so don't ask her. ;)

I'm curious if Bricklink Store owners know people are furiously buying parts to complete 10179 and are marking them up. I would also buy a used copy for $1,200 as well. With that said, what are your thoughts on purchasing new sealed sets $2,000 selling them for $2,500-$3,000 come Christmas?

Exactly. I just don't know how my wife would feel if I shelled out $2k for a Lego set. Worst case, I'm sure I would get what I paid for it back.

Back on subject. I just don't have the time to bricklink a huge undertaking as this. My time with my wife and child means more than spending countless hours trying to get every last piece I need to complete my project. I would not settle for anything less than 100% original parts. No substitutions here. The problem would be the stickers. There will become a point where all original sticker sheets from the original set will be gone. What would you do then?

^Umm no. That's why I was curious =) Left positive feedback, then realized the seller got a fast one by me on a special high priced part for CC. Can't change feedback and he stopped responding to emails. My first ripoff on Bricklink.

^It's okay, in real term's it wasn't much money. But as a single part, it was pricey (Light bley door). No easy recourse at that point, so just chalked it as lesson learned for a small price. Some people just lack principal & honor and that's how the world is.

@AvengerDr are you using the web form to apply for the parts? They usually send a confirmation email to say that it was received, then a 2nd email to state a Reference number and phone number to call to & speak with a CS rep to process Credit Card payment, review shipping details, etc. Have you tried calling directly?

Yes I requested various parts several times, both missing and "lost" from the 10179 I never had. This time I never received any order nr. I even tried the contact form but there too I did not receive any confirmation. Maybe they are having some problems? Tomorrow morning I'll try to call them..

And with @adello25's help, my UCS MF is complete at last! All new, no substitutions, new plaque sticker and all figs included for a combined total of $1,000 (but no box or instructions). The journey is complete at long last =)

It's one of those things, that if you're ever gonna do it then you should start right away. Every day it gets worse and worse, until it passes impossible. I am still amazed at how high the sealed ones are climbing, getting real close to $3K nowadays.

@BrickDancer what did you use in place of the levers? Did you actually buy the real ones?

No kidding, I have tried to find black bases with light bley levers, to no avail, looked for sets with either light bley bases and levers or black bases with light bley levers, finding nothing to justify the price/levers in the set.

Oh yea just thought I would put it out there that my 99% bricklinked Falcon is for sale. 95% of the parts are new, including boat riggings, radar dish, yellow technic angle bricks. Brand new set of instructions. Only thing not correct are the levers, mine have light bley bases with black levers.

Boy the price on those levers has gone up. Buying 60 of them at $3 - $4 each is crazy (current available prices on Brick link). It was just in April when I bought 60 at 95 cents each. Between those, the rigging pieces, the dish, the yellow technic, stickers and instructions this has become almost as expensive to piece together than buying one used.

That's what I'm saying. Unless Lego produces more, they will be extremely hard to find.

One possible option that I've considered is having additional copies of these rare parts produced.

Note: I am not trying to take away Lego's business with this idea, if TLG wants to make more of these parts, more power to them, but if they don't...

Since the patents are all long expired, simply making plastic parts should not have any legal issues that I can think of.

So the question is... If I could have copies of the light gray boat rigging produced that were close enough in quality to Lego to work with 10179, would anyone buy them? Lets say I could sell a pair of them for $49 including shipping, making them about $25 each.

Any interest?

To do this, I'd probably need to make 1,000 of them to make any sense with it, so that would be 500 sets to be sold.

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